Coach Dusty Rhodes optimistic entering final season at North Florida

“The ability’s there,” the retiring Ospreys coach says.

The University of North Florida baseball season will have a beginning and an ending beyond just its first and last games.

Last thing first: This is the final season for retiring coach Dusty Rhodes, who launched the program 22 years ago and has presided over 879 victories. Sixteen of those seasons extended into the postseason, including a national runner-up finish in 2005.

First of all: Rhodes’ last season will be the first in which the Ospreys will be eligible to compete in the Atlantic Sun Tournament (with a top-six regular-season finish) and qualify for the NCAA Division I playoffs after UNF’s four-year transition from Division II. Rhodes is glad his players finally can play for a championship and not just a parting gift to him.

“They don’t owe me anything,” he said, “because it’s all about them.”

The Ospreys will open the season tonight against Ohio State at Harmon Stadium. They’ll also play home games Saturday against Richmond and Sunday against Florida A&M before heading to Tallahassee to face Florida State on Wednesday on the way to Mobile, Ala., for games against host South Alabama as well as Wichita State and Eastern Michigan.

By then, and before the conference season starts March 19 against Jacksonville University, Rhodes figures to have an idea how the season will go.

“The ability’s there,” he said. “We’re in better shape than we have been in the last four years to be able to compete.”

Despite struggling to a 23-31 record (15-15 vs. Atlantic Sun opponents) last year, the Ospreys are optimistic because of the return of senior outfielder Preston Hale, a unanimous preseason all-conference selection who hit .371 in 53 games last year, and several players who lost considerable time to injury in 2009.

Opening night starter Michael Kelly pitched 36 innings in his first season with UNF after undergoing Tommy John elbow surgery in July 2007. The lingering aches in his left arm so troubled him in ’09 that he returned to his surgeon, noted sports orthopedist James Andrews, for reassurance.

Kelly won his last two outings, and that gives him a healthy state of mind about 2010. He’s noticed a similar upswing with all the Ospreys now that they have postseason incentive.

“There’s more purpose this year, and guys are buying into that,” he said.

As UNF completes its transition to Division I, the Ospreys will begin the coaching transition.

Rhodes’ successor, JU graduate and former LSU coach Raymond “Smoke” Laval, will serve as associate head coach this season.

“We’ve been friends for 30 years. It is good to have a guy like that here,” Rhodes said.

UNF will rename its baseball field Dusty Rhodes Field at Harmon Stadium before a game against Alcorn State on March 6.

But the coach doesn’t expect to retire to a seat at his namesake field after the season. Rhodes, 63, said he might not be done with coaching, “I’m just through with the NCAA.”

He calls the postseason moratorium of the past four years “a ridiculous deal” for the players who had to accept it and for its effect on recruiting.

He claims he will treat this season as any other, no matter how it ends, knowing that it will mean an end. The seasons have, after all, added up to a decent body of work.

“I’ve had a pretty good ride,” he said. “I think this program stands for itself.”

My son and his friends have been going to Dusty Rhodes camps for years what he has done for baseball in this area is amazing. On a day when Tiger is here in town begging for foregiveness we have opening season for a coach that is the epitome of class act. We will miss Coach Rhodes and will make a extra effort to make as many of his last season home games here in town. Go Ospreys